


Disgruntled Diner

by Springmagpies



Series: A Drabble a Day to Pass the Hiatus Away [14]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, F/M, Fluff, Some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:46:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24170782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Springmagpies/pseuds/Springmagpies
Summary: Jemma and Fitz often study together at their favorite diner. However, when one of the waitresses starts to show an interest in Fitz, Jemma doesn't quite know why she starts to feel so jealous. Will she finally realize her feelings for Fitz or will she just forever feel disgruntled at the diner?
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Series: A Drabble a Day to Pass the Hiatus Away [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1595800
Comments: 12
Kudos: 73





	Disgruntled Diner

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the prompt "Why aren't you with her?" + FS as requested by anon! Enjoy! 💕

The diner was open until the very early morning, one o’clock to be exact, and so it was the perfect spot to study. Well, Fitz and Jemma preferred the coffee shop, but that was not open as late as the diner and so, in a pinch, they ordered breakfast for dinner, cups of tea, and sat at their favorite booth together as they poured over their various bits of schoolwork. 

Over the course of their first two years at the Academy, they had gotten to know the employees at the diner pretty well. Sometimes the chef added an extra few pieces of fruit to Jemma’s bowl or an extra scoop of hashbrowns on Fitz’s plate. They also got leftover pie if they stayed late enough and the waiters were always very nice. However, in their third year at the Academy, Jemma noticed that one waitress, in particular, was very nice to Fitz. The waitress, Caroline, was about their age and worked at the diner to pay for her college classes. She often chit-chatted with them when things got slow, coming over to their table to talk. Though, Jemma noticed she spent most of the time talking to Fitz.

“She does not have a crush on me, Simmons,” Fitz stated matter of factly through a bite of waffle. He wiped his face with the heel of his palm before tucking back into his sketching.

Jemma folded her arms on the table. “She does too. Did you not catch the way she stared at you just then?”

“What, as she was handing me my plate?”

“How about how she giggled at your joke?”

“I was being funny, of course she laughed.”

Jemma tilted her head to one side. “It wasn’t funny.”

Fitz scoffed. “It was too.”

“Fitz, why can’t you accept that Caroline has a crush on you.”

He shook his head and looked back down at his design. Jemma never understood why Fitz couldn’t see himself as someone worthy of affection. He was handsome and charming (in his own way) and unbelievably smart. He always took pride in his work and his mental ability, but when it came to relationships of any sort he suddenly floundered like a fish. Which was odd, because he was a total catch. Jemma herself had harbored a small tiny tiny crush on him when they had first met. But, after becoming such good friends, she had pushed it away. It wouldn’t do to have a crush on her best friend. That was only asking for trouble. And since they were only friends, she could at least help him out with his relationships and point him in the right direction couldn’t she? What was the harm?

“Well,” she said, twisting her fork around her fruit dish, “do you like Caroline?”

Fitz spluttered on his bite of hashbrowns, spitting it all over his sketch. “Damn,” he said.

“Oh, Fitz. Here, let me help.” She leaned across the table and helped him clear the mess from his design. Once the paper was clear, she sat back and trained her eyes on him once more. 

“So, do you like Caroline,” she repeated.

He shrugged, drawing his shoulders to his ears as his cheeks pinked. “She’s nice.”

“Nice?”

“Well, what do you want me to say, Simmons? Do I think she’s pretty, yes. Do I think she’s funny? Yes. Do I enjoy hearing her southern accent and the way she laughs, also yes. But, none of that matters because she doesn’t like me like that. She is doing her job and being friendly.”

Jemma huffed a breath through her nose, but before she could say anything more Caroline came back with their slices of free pie. 

“Here y’all go,” she said cheerily, placing their pies in front of them. If she sensed that they had been talking about her, she didn’t show it. Instead, she just kept smiling.

“Frankie was about to take the slice of banana home, but I saved it for ya, Fitz. I know it’s your favorite.” She winked and pointed her pen at the slice in front of Fitz. 

“Thanks,” he said with a grin. 

Jemma’s eyes played ping-pong between the two of them. How could he not tell that Caroline had a crush on him? It was so obvious! The way she looked at him and smiled at him like only he existed. It was clear as day!

“So, what are y’all studying for tonight?” she asked, folding her arms. 

“I’ve got a blueprint due tomorrow for class and Simmons has a Chemistry final.”

“Oh? What are you designing if you don’t mind me asking.”

Fitz rubbed the back of his neck, drawing his plate of pie over the sketch. “I wish I could show you, but it isn’t done yet.”

Caroline smiled sweetly, waving away the worry showing on Fitz’s face. “That’s alright. But I would love to see it when I can. My daddy is an architect so I always liked seeing the stages of things getting built. It’s like an evolution.”

Fitz’s eyes went bright. “That’s a cool way of thinking about it.”

“Thanks. I think so too.” Caroline continued to look at him and he at her. For the first time since she had met Fitz, Jemma suddenly felt like a third wheel. 

“Now for the worst part of the night,” Caroline said, “here’s y’all’s check. Place closes down in fifteen. I’ll be back in just a sec with your to-go boxes.”

She walked away and Jemma couldn’t help but see that Fitz was watching her go. She cleared her throat and he startled, banging his knee against the bottom of the table. The plates jumped with the impact and he muttered a curse under the clattering. 

“Will you just ask her out already, Fitz,” Jemma said. She didn’t look at him, instead taking a bite of her pie. 

“Simmons--”

“I don’t want to hear it, Fitz. She likes you, you like her. Just ask her.”

“She--”

Jemma kicked him under the table as Caroline walked back with the boxes. 

“Here are those for you,” Caroline sang. She clapped her hands together and rocked on her heels. “If there’s anything else I can help you--”

“Fitz has something,” Jemma broke in. She shot her friend a glare. 

“Yes, Fitz?”

Fitz’s eyes were dangerously wide and Jemma could actually see the warring emotions going on in the blue of his irises. Frustration at her and fear about what she wanted him to say. Slowly, he tore his gaze away from her and towards Caroline. Jemma took a bite of pie to give them some sort of privacy. However, she still couldn’t help but overhear the conversation.

“Umm, Caroline, I was wondering if you wanted to see a movie on Friday.”

“With just you,” she clarified. 

“Yes, with me. As a date. I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date. With me. To the movies--a movie.”

A wide grin spread over Caroline’s face. “Yes, I would love that, Fitz. Oh, um, here’s my number.” She pulled out her little black notebook, scribbled something down on the page, and tore it off to give it to Fitz.

“Thanks,” he grinned. The tips of his ears were pink and his hand shook slightly as he took the paper. 

“See you then.” With one last wide smile in his direction, Caroline spun on her heel and flounced away to the diner’s kitchen.

“See,” Jemma said, setting down her fork and leaning forward in her seat, “I told you she liked you.”

Fitz was staring at the piece of notepaper in his hand, a dopey look on his face. “Yeah, I guess I just couldn’t see what was right in front of me.”

Jemma swallowed, a piece of her pie must have gotten lodged in her throat for a moment. “Guess so,” she said.

He tucked in the corners of his lips, finally looking at her and not Caroline’s phone number. “It’s a good thing I have you.”

Her bite of pie suddenly went sour in her mouth. Yeah, she thought, good thing.

* * *

A month later and Fitz was still dating Caroline. They went out together on weekends, texted constantly, and all the other dating nonsense. Jemma didn’t mind Fitz being in a relationship, she really didn’t. She still talked to him plenty, they still walked to classes together and studied together. He still valued her opinion and she still valued his. They were still friends. And yet, there was this new strange wall between them that Jemma didn’t know how to break through. In fact, if she were being honest, she didn’t really want to. 

The more serious the relationship got between Fitz and Caroline, the less Jemma wanted to talk about it. It dug at pieces of her for reasons she just couldn’t explain to hear him mention how perfect Caroline was, how funny she was, how much he liked the way she talked. He was on about her accent all the time and it just nicked a nerve. 

“She makes her o’s long when she asks me how I am,” he said one day as they sat out on the green under their favorite tree. 

“Does she now,” Jemma replied, pretending to flick through her book. The text on the page had gone fuzzy as she stared at it. 

Fitz nodded, shutting the book on his lap. “And she adds r’s to words that don’t have one. And--Jemma, you do know you’re wrinkling the pages of your book, right?”

Jemma loosened her grasp on the corner of her page, smoothing it down before flicking a strand of hair from her eyes. 

“Are you alright?” he asked. He tucked his outstretched legs up under himself in a criss-cross and touched her shoulder lightly. 

“I’m fine, Fitz,” she replied shortly. 

“You don’t seem fine. You seem tense. Can I help?”

“No, I’m fine. I’ve got to get to class.”

She hopped up from her spot, a mix of embarrassment and unreasonable frustration bubbling up by her heart. 

“Simmons, if you leave now you’ll be twenty minutes early--”

“I need to talk to Weaver.”

“Oh, I can come with--”

“I’ll see you later.”

Gathering the rest of her things from the ground, Jemma stocked off in the direction of her next class. Her chest had tightened during her conversation with Fitz and she had to bite her lip to keep the feelings pooling around her nose at bay. She had never felt like this before, this strange concoction of feelings. On one hand, she was angry at Fitz for talking about Caroline, angry at Caroline for liking Fitz, angry at herself for being angry. And yet, on the other hand, she was disappointed? That wasn’t the right word. Sad wasn’t either. It was like she was homesick. She was missing Fitz when he was right there next to her. And for feeling the feelings, she was sick to her stomach at herself. Who was she to be upset that Fitz was happy? That was very poor best friend behavior. But she couldn’t just deny her emotions. No, but she could bottle them away. It had worked before, and so she tried to do it again. Picking her chin from off her chest and pinning her hair firmly behind her ear, Jemma marched on to Weaver’s repeating the mantra of “Fitz can do what he likes and I won’t let it bother me” until it was like a song caught in her head.

The mantra worked for the next month and a half. Fitz would talk about Caroline, Jemma would listen like a good best friend, and then they would move onto different topics of discussion. It was also made easier as Fitz talked less and less about Caroline and more and more about the projects he was working on or asking after Jemma’s day. When he did talk about Caroline, it was still mostly positive. Just brief. So the mantra continued to work well. Its effects, however, were not built to survive the particular brand of angry disappointment that came with Fitz missing Doctor Who Day for a date with Caroline.

“What do you mean you can’t go?” Jemma asked, her teaspoon hovering mid-air. They were studying at the diner that night.

“Caroline bought us movie tickets,” he said, looking at the table. The tips of his ears were pink and he kept turning a sugar packet round and round in a circle on the wooden surface. 

“Did you tell her what day it was?” she asked. Doctor Who Day was a scheduled event marking the day they first got partnered in Chem Lab. It wasn’t just any day and Fitz knew it. He had to know it, Jemma thought.

He looked up, meeting her eyes. She was surprised to find the blue as sad as it was. “I did, Simmons. But--”

“But what? She just didn’t care?”

“Simmons, she did, but Friday is our date night. And it is the movie’s premiere.”

Feeling like she should think her anger was silly, but not feeling so in the slightest, Jemma pressed on. “You can move your date night, we can’t just up and move the day we became friends.”

Fitz opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again only to be cut off by Caroline herself. 

“Alrighty, I got y’all’s pie. Jemma they were all out of lemon tonight, I could only wrangle you up some pecan.” She looked between the two of them, her eyes lingering on Fitz and her brows a question.

The tension tightened rapidly and the anger that Jemma had felt suddenly turned awkward in the pregnant pause. 

“That’s alright,” Jemma said, pulling out her wallet to put bills on the table, “I’m actually good tonight. Don’t feel very hungry.” She placed the money down and slid out of the booth. “Goodnight, Fitz.”

She turned and walked towards the exit before he could even utter a “drive safe.”

It was fitting that the universe made it rain on Doctor Who Day. She hadn’t talked to Fitz that entire week, and not for the lack of trying. She texted him to apologize for her outburst and received a genuine acceptance. He had even sent a lengthy apology about Doctor Who Day, telling her he really wished he could make it. But after that, it had been radio silence. No texts, no calls, no morning drops off of tea, or walking to classes. He just stopped talking to her. It broke her heart and the fire that had first burst to life in her lungs had died out, quickly replaced just by missing him. In an attempt to make herself feel better, Jemma brewed herself a nice warm cup of tea, bundled up in her favorite soft blanket and comfiest pajamas, and pulled up an article on her tablet. 

She was halfway down the article--an interview with Tony Stark--when there was a rapid succession of knocks on her door. Sighing, she clicked off the tablet, put down her mug, and opened the door. 

“Hey,” Fitz said. He was drenched from head to foot in rainwater. It weighed down his curls and made his shirt stick to his chest. Even as he stood there, a droplet of water ran down his nose and onto his lips leaving him to lick it away as he pushed his curls from off his forehead.

Seeing him stand there with his hair all wet, his cheeks pink with cold, and a small smile ticking up the corners of his lips, the warring emotions all came flooding back. However, anger was the loudest (though not the strongest) and so it controlled her tongue.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t you have a movie of some sort? Why aren’t you with her?”

Fitz licked his lips, his eyes dropping to examine his wet trainers. “Well, uh, she sort of kicked me out of her car on the way to the movie.”

“What? As it was moving?”

His head flung up to face her. “Wha--no, not as it was moving. I think I’d be a bit more banged up if it had been moving. No, Jemma, she dropped me off. Granted it was a mile away from the Academy, but I don’t really blame her.”

She looked him up and down, his soaked appearance now making sense. “Why would she do that?”

“That’s sort of a long story,” he said. 

“Well, my original plans for this evening didn’t pan out, so I’ve got time.” Despite the somewhat bitter tone of her words, she softened them at the end with a small smile. “How about you come in and tell me. I’ve got a shirt of yours I stole that you can wear and I think some sweatpants too. And there’s tea if you want some--”

She was broken off as Fitz wrapped his arms around her middle, sinking his face into the crook of her neck. Once the surprise had worn away, Jemma hugged him tightly back.

“Thank you,” he whispered, his breath hot on her exposed skin. 

“Of course,” she said. 

They stood there for a good minute, just hugging for reasons Jemma still wasn’t sure of. But it didn’t matter. Fitz had made it for Doctor Who Day after all.

“So,” Jemma said, once Fitz was dressed in dry clothes and they were both settled with their cuppa, “what happened?”

Fitz lowered the mug from his mouth. “Well, we had been on the rocks for ages.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he blushed, “She got kind of frustrated that I couldn’t talk about my work, not even the finished thing, and even more frustrated that my favorite parts to talk about always involved you. All of her complaints were completely valid. I made a rather rubbish boyfriend.”

Jemma leaned and grabbed his foot. “I’m sure you didn’t, Fitz.”

He smiled slightly over the rim of his mug of tea. “No, I guess you're right. I think me and Caroline just didn’t make the best of couples. We were just too different when it came to important things, I guess. She liked to go out, I liked to stay in, things like that. And then Doctor Who Day came and she used it sort of as a test, I guess.”

“A test?” Jemma repeated, sitting up a bit straighter.

“An ultimatum. I had been talking about missing hanging out with you and I don’t think she liked it very much.”

“Oh, Fitz.”

He ducked his head, “I know. And then she kept asking me to hang out before classes so I couldn’t walk with you and things and we were on our way to the movie and I mentioned Doctor Who Day, she pulled over and asked me to choose once and for all, and so I did.”

A tightness began to form in Jemma’s heart before working its way up to her throat. “You--you picked Doctor Who Day?” she choked. 

He shook his head, “No, Jemma. I chose you.” He blushed a furious shade of pink but held his gaze. Seeing his blue eyes go bright with affection, it all clicked in Jemma’s mind. Her strange mixture of feelings, her desire to be around him, the way she missed him when he wasn’t there. It felt odd because it went beyond the bounds of friendship. She was in love with Fitz. 

Gently placing her mug of tea down, Jemma climbed up onto her knees and crossed the small gap of couch cushion between herself and Fitz. She moved his knees out of the way, leaned over, and gently met his lips with hers. She had only just registered their softness before she pulled away, somewhat embarrassed by what she had done. Fitz, however, did not appear embarrassed at all. Instead, his eyes a deep ocean color and alight with life, he leaned forward himself, took her face in his hands, and kissed her soundly. His hair smelled of rainwater but his clothes smelled fresh and clean. He tasted like the tea he took with extra sugar and was as warm as he always was. The feeling of homesickness Jemma had been feeling for a month melted away with his heat and she sighed into his mouth. She was well and truly home.


End file.
